The second Animation Day in Cannes took place on May 18th at the Salon La Renaissance, the Palais des Festivals and the UAE pavilion at the Marche du film, putting for a second year animation on the map of Cannes screenings and events and generating audiences from the animation industry and beyond, along with animation cinephiles and festival professionals. 

The two panel discussions, one on Virtual Reality and the impact that it has in the animation world of filmmaking and one on Animation that matters and inspires, which concluded the events, created a platform for interaction and raised topics of great importance for the animation industry, including how to fund and make a successful animation and how what are the secrets to worldwide distribution, widely discussed between the co-panelists Jonathan Parienti (HorYou CEO) and Marie-Claude Beauchamp (Producer). 

Two parallel screenings of recent animation short films and trailers of newly completed features were presented at the Palais des Festivals and the Salon La Renaissance. 

The awarded UAE feature film ‘Bilal’ by Ayman Jamal received great response at its second screening during animation day, following its Cannes premiere at Olympia on May 14th. 

Director Ayman Jamal, taking part in the final Animation Day panel, spoke about the challenges of creating an animation that will be equally successful and made for the mass audiences. He also referred to the fact that introducing a different type of hero as Bilal and trying to break the western stereotypes was also not an easy task. 

The film continues its festival circuit journey next month at Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Animation Day in Cannes, after a successful second year is already setting a rendezvous with the entire world of animation on May 18th 2017 for a third edition.